Eva Frankfurther (1930 Berlin, Germany – 1959 London, England)
West Indian Waitresses, c. 1955
Oil on paper
76 x 55 cm
Ben Uri Collection: Presented by Beate Planskoy (the artist’ sister) 2015
© The Estate of Eva Frankfurther
Immigrated to England 1939
Disaffected with the London art scene, from 1951-56 Frankfurther worked the evening shift at Lyons Corner House in Piccadilly in order to paint during the day. Among her fellow workers she found 'boundless material in the way of human beings' - enough to people her work for the next five years; many were recruited from the new immigrant populations, so that this body of Frankfurther’s work has a documentary value recording the changing face of a new multicultural Britain. 'West Indian, Irish, Cypriot and Pakistani immigrants, English whom the Welfare State had passed by, these were the people amongst whom I lived and made some of my best friends,' she wrote. Employing loose brushwork and dry paint in a restricted palette, sparingly applied, she focuses on faces and postures in both single and small group portraits.
In this carefully arranged composition the two waitresses appear to mirror one another: from the crossover tops of their distinctive Lyons uniforms to their outstretched arms and white peaked headdresses inclining toward one another, a close personal as well as professional relationship is implied. The rose-coloured background is also typical of the ‘feminine’ palette that indicates Frankfurther’s instinctive sympathy for women. The strong verticals of the women’s bodies and solid horizontals of their beam-like arms form a static framework counterbalanced by a series of strong diagonals. Their gestures are stilled, suggesting a rare quiet moment among the noisy, busy reality of restaurant life. Frankfurther lifts the scene from the frenzy of the everyday, suspending it for our contemplation.
